Since I was in college, I've had the habit of giving up alcohol for the month of January. At the time, it was because I had exams at the end of January, and it simply wasn't a good idea to imbibe while studying, especially coming after the Christmas/New Years period which, at the time, involved about 12 days of drinking for me. One particularly heavy year ended with me thinking I had low grade alcohol poisoning.
After finishing college, I kept the habit up, for similar reasons, after a massive amount of drinking over the fortnight, I needed a break from it to clear my system out after returning to work.
During the year, I also quit drinking for Lent. No alcohol, for 40 days and 40 nights. Again, this started in college (third year to be precise) and I kept the habit after graduating.
On more than one occasion I've thought I was drinking too much, and to me, quitting for these periods during the year meant that I was in control, not the bottle/pint glass/shot glass.
Guinness is usually my poison of choice, but I will occasionally have a Heineken. While I do enjoy a glass of whiskey or vodka, it's become rare for me to have one in the last few years, and there were only a handful of occasions when I did so in 2014.
On a normal week, outside of January or Lent, I rarely drink midweek. I drive to work, and there's a checkpoint on my route to work about two or three times a month. While I've never been stopped there (although I have been breathalysed on two other occasions) sod's law dictates that the one time I am stopped and checked will be the one time I have had a drink the night before. On an odd week over the year, I might have a drink on Friday night, but it's usually Saturday that I will go out to the pub, meet friends and drink. I rarely drink to excess, some of my friends will confess to have never seen me drunk, but often right up to my limit.
I convinced myself that this was responsible drinking, I wasn't going to drive the next morning, would have slept, eaten and recovered some way before getting behind the wheel again, and I have no responsibilities to anyone other than myself. For some reason, I rarely drink at home, be that in whatever house I was renting up until I bought my own place last year, the flat I bought, or my parents' house, it's almost always out in public. I never really understood why, but I've no inclination to drink at home.
With all that being said, over the last 18 months or so, there's been a few incidents where I was seriously concerned that the amount I do drink was having an adverse affect on myself. More than one Sunday has been described as a "write off", I've said and done things that I've regretted the next day, or whenever they've come back to me after the fog of liquor has lifted. As I get older, I've still felt rough some Mondays and even Tuesdays after a heavy night on Saturday.
So, as 2015 begins, I've resolved to stop drinking for a while. I'm not quitting, I will have a drink again before the year's end, but when my next drink will happen, I can't tell you. I've been to the Electric Picnic festival in August for the last two years, and I can see myself having a few drinks at that, but between then and now, if you want to buy me a drink, don't.
I'll worry about tomorrow when it comes, but for today, just for today, I'm not having a drink.
Thank you.
